yay, he's reading alright!

We just had lunch with Daddy in the city.

While waiting to be served, Bryan read to his Daddy his silly sentences again. Boy, was Daddy proud of him!

But we were quite disappointed to hear that Bryan didn't want to learn how to read. He said he would once he became a big boy. And for now, he preferred to be read to...

What a lazy baby!!! Actually my secret agenda of teaching literacy is to have him read on his own in the morning when he wakes up, lest he comes bothering me in my bed! Hey, I'm cranky too when I don't get my sleep, ok?

bravo, Bryan!

As of "The fat cat sat on the mat" Day 4, Bryan is finally reading! Reading actual words and understanding them, and not picture reading. Yeah, tried and tested! Really!

Guess what just happened? He was peering into my screen to read my previous post and he saw what he could recognise. To make things easier, I printed out a copy of the silly sentences he made. And the most amazing thing happened! He read all of them! Every single word! Awesome! I know he definitely understood what he read coz he was laughing his head off.

Well, to many moms, this is probably no surprise for a 4 year-old. Many kids that I know have already started reading as early as three, or maybe even younger. But it is the utmost gratification for me after an intense lesson of two days. Now this makes the quasi-homeschooling that I do fun!

"Mom, remember to tell Daddy what I did today, ok?" Oh no, you're gonna to read to him!

the fat cat sat on the mat again...

Last night, I was totally convinced that my son was an under-achiever.

I gave him a stack of self-made cards with words of the sentence "the fat cat sat on the mat" jumbled up and told him to read each individual words and then arrange them into a sentence.

He had no problems with word recognition. He was reading each card alright. But when it came to forming a sentence, it was "the fat cat sat on mat the", until Alan could sense my frustration at dinner table. (Yeah, at dinner table, coz otherwise Bryan will not be interested in food. Don't get me started on starving them for a few meals. My children are just not interested in food. They can starve and be cranky and crazy, and still they won't eat unless they are sat down at the table with Daddy and Mommy saying "Eat! Eat!" every other second. Why don't they like food??? Anyway, that's another grouse altogether.)

Alan pointed out that it could be too boring for him to just form one sentence. So I thought, ok I would throw in the other words like"bat, hat, rat" and see what Bryan would do with them. Still not much progress.

After dinner, I wrote some silly sentences on the board and got Bryan to match each sentence. And indeed, he showed keen interest in silly sentences. Still, he had to check with me a hundred times before he completed a sentence. And after 15 minutes, he said he's too tired and his arms were all aching from arranging the cards! What???!!! What an under-achiever, I thought again. Sigh!

During lunch today, we did the word cards again. Yeah, it's "The fat cat sat on the mat" on Day 3. This time I didn't have any spare moment to check and baby him through the sentence making steps, so I just told him to make one silly sentence to make me laugh. What came out of that motivating factor laughter?

"The fat bat sat on the rat."
"The fat rat sat on the cat."
"The fat bat sat on the hat."
"The fat cat sat on the rat."
"The fat mat sat on the hat."
"The fat hat sat on the bat."
"The fat cat sat on the hat."
"The fat rat sat on the bat." etc

Now not so much an under-achiever today. Yay! Of course, I had to pretend that his silly sentences were cracking me up. He was certainly proud that he could make Mommy laugh with all his silly sentences.

the fat cat sat on the mat...

Yesterday was a good day for me.

I managed to quickly cook dinner while the kids napped. By the time Bryan woke up from his nap, I was able to have some fun with him.

We have had this chart on our main door for a very long time. It finally served its purpose yesterday afternoon, when I told Bryan to sit in front of it and learn the first 4 words in the "-at" family column, while I cleaned up the kitchen.

It didn't take him long. After 5 minutes, "I'm done, Mommy! What's next?"

He's been resisting his afternoon nap ever since we came back from Singapore. So whenever I say he doesn't have to go back to his bed anymore, he loves it! In fact, he loves it whenever he has to do some "work" for Mom so much that when Daddy was back yesterday evening, he proudly informed his Dad that he was doing some "work" for Mom.

Anyway, next it was word-recognition exercise for him.

I wrote a series of "cat", "bat", "hat" and "mat" on the easel and got him to circle, t-cross, cross out and then strike out the words, one group at a time. Pretty well, and all this while I was still clearing the cooking utensils in the kitchen.

Next, it was word cards.

Got Bryan to read out the words, while prompting him not to forget the accompanying actions. The actions were a lot of fun for him. e.g. scratching moves for "cat", flapping arms for "bat", hands over the head for "hat" and lastly, he had to sit down on a "mat".

Finally I showed him the card "at", hoping he would transfer some of his knowledge to reading the word on his own. Well, not so much. He needed some clues.

The last thing we did before dinner was for him to complete reading the whole column of the "-at" family chart. And he did! Applause! So I did manage to get him to transfer his new "-at" knowledge after all. Oh... yes! I also got him to read "the fat cat sat on the mat" out loud and immediately he remembered we had a book in that title.

After dinner, we had a short revision on those words using Magna-Doodle board. Then we started reading "The Fat Cat Sat on the Mat" together. It was fun and an accomplished lesson plan! Homeschooling this way, I like it. But this is not always the reality.

Reality is: Mommy is always tired, Bryan is being silly or cranky, or Kristin is disturbing us!

But it was definitely seizing the moment to get him to learn a few more words.

Oh... did I mention I was in the gym yesterday? Yeah, that's where the energy came from. I think I need to camp out in the gym to feel fit mentally to teach again.

Next on my lesson plan is the "-ish" family. Not very many words - "fish", "dish", "wish", "swish". But I can certainly read Dr Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish with him after that.

I do have many ideas in my head... but really can't summon energy to realise them. Where is Brand's Chicken Essence and Youmeishu???

just for laughs...

I asked Bryan what this bottle cork looked like.

Ermm, it looks like a tree.

What else?

A light bulb.

What else? Something you don't like to eat and begin with the letter "M"?

Mushroom!

Looks like I underestimated his creativity. All I wanted was "mushroom".

dinner simply grilled...

Yay... yesterday's weather was perfect for bbq!

After what we did on Bryan's birthday, we finally decided that bbq-ing with kids is actually manageable. So, that's what we decided to have for dinner again. Also, summer is really coming to an end soon... just seizing the opportunity to relax on our huge balcony.

This time we didn't have enough time to do a salad. But I had a huge water melon. And no time to cook a staple, since we were out all afternoon to get some gelato. So we got some take-away - fried rice, mainly for the kids.

Simple dinner... Alan started the fire at about 6pm, and we were all done with dinner by 7.40pm! Wow... speed bbq, right? It's definitely nice to have Alan cook dinner once in a while. :)

That's a happy father-and-son-after-dinner-pic.

Kristin at 7 months 1 week 5 days...

My mom's been telling then that Kristin was already clapping her hands. This was definitely not her first attempt, but we finally got a video footage. I really don't remember Bryan clapping his hands so young.

Actually, I'm just gonna try out the new "insert video" function on blogger. :)

the story of "brang"

Bryan: I brang it to school the other day.

No, you mean you brought it to school the other day.

The English language is really tough:
it's ring - rang - rung,
but not bring -brang - brung,
and it's sting - stung - stung,
while it's also stink - stank - stunk!

a short pool?

For some time I was figuring out why Bryan always said the children's pool was a short pool. And finally one day, it dawned on me that he meant the water was shallow. Hmmm, water level is low, thus short.

Oh I see!

joke of the week...

Mommy, why isn't it "c" for scissors?

Yeah... didn't we have a video on that from the Electric Company?

four things...

I've been tagged!!! Ok, so Lilian, here are my 4's:

Four jobs I have had or am still holding in my life:

1) Shop Assistant
2) Filing Clerk (Just happy that #1 and #2 weren't something I had to do for life... Was so bored everyday, looking at my watch.)
3) Teacher
4) SAHM

Then I picked the last two jobs where getting MC is almost impossible! I've since learnt that good health is very important.

Four places I have lived:
1) Singapore (Holland, Dover, Jurong West, Kim Tian)
2) Kassel
3) Berlin
4) Frankfurt
I've been changing my address on the average of every two years since I turned 19... I have accumulated so many boxes that I think more than half of my memories are stashed away in dusty boxes.

Four countries I have been to on vacation:
1) England
2) France
3) Italy
4) Belgium

Nothing quite exotic and you don't have to wonder why they're all on one continent...

Four of my favourite foods:
1) Any soup my mom boils... One thing I really miss and I can't find all over the world other than in my mom's kitchen as soon as I moved out when I was 19.
2) English fresh milk... I can drink it all day.
3) German yoghurt - excellent taste despite it being only low in fat and its wide varieties in flavours
4) Fried mee in dark soy sauce from JB (you know, the handmade sort which is as thick as udon, but not udon!) Seldom find it these days. Any idea, Lilian?

When I asked Alan about my favourite foods, he said I had too many. But these are the fours that I've narrowed down coz I always miss them whenever I'm on the other side of the globe and I simply can't find replacements for them.

Four places I would rather be right now:
1) In my gym working out - not so much to keep fit, but to strengthen my back...
2) In a sauna to numb the pain unceasing - the stiff neck and aching shoulders
3) home...
4) still home... (not very creative here, hee)

Four moms I'm tagging:
1) Ivana
2) Helen
3) Vivian
4) Kheng Yan

happy 2nd birthday!

Yeah, our little Kristin turned two today!

She was extremely thrilled to be the star tonight. Not long ago, we celebrated Bryan's birthday, which will be backdated in the August posts plus the shots from summer vacation - the next project (as soon as the kids start school in September, I promise). Kor-kor's birthday then was like rehearsal ground for her. She immediately knew where to sit once the cake was placed on the table after tonight's dinner, and shouted possessively, "Mine! Mine!", while she fended her cake with waving arms, making sure that no one would take her seat! Yap... the terrible twos/threes stage has been staying with my family for a long time. My children are 2 years and 18 days apart! My sanity, o good luck!

my brave husband is...

the hero of the road trip!!! :)

We drove altogether 2378.9 km in 10 days, Frankfurt - Lucerne - Como - Florence - Siena - Pisa - Forte dei Marmi - Milan - Frankfurt. Ermm, actually, only he drove. The rest of us just sat in the car, some more annoying than the others. That's you, Kristin!

Some of the stretches were pretty perilous and nerve-wrecking, and I was simply too much a baby to drive.

I really don't like driving here, especially in Germany.

Reasons are threefold:

1) Germans like to chase you. Not just tail-gate, they really chase you down the Autobahn when there's no speed limit.

2) When they signal, they will swerve out almost immediately not casting any care for your speed/acceleration.

3) They will start to overtake you when there's an obvious speed limit to stick to... Why???

In the city? They are just impatient drivers who can't park properly! They seem alright because there are no parking lines drawn!

And driving in Italy??? No way, man! There isn't any lane marking in the cities!

ciao from Florence...

If this is what can be done with a normal autofocus Panasonic Lumix, then I'd really like to try an SLR!

kristin and the summer fruits...

Just thought it funny to see how excited Kristin is whenever she sees fruits readily available...

Enjoy!

afternoon nap...

Looks like Bryan is giving up his afternoon nap these days. He hardly slept for 45 minutes and was up. So I thought it's great opportunity to make him do some work while his sister was sleeping.

We did some numbers from the Kumon workbook we got from Singapore, for almost an hour.... until we heard a loud wail.

"What are you doing, Kristin?" I asked as I went into her bedroom.
"Meimei crying for Mommy!" Huh... and then she gave a chuckle. You cheeky girl! Looks like I should start telling her about the boy who cried wolf.

kristin's first day at Sunday School...

Yes... she's finally made it out of the creche to her first lesson at Sunday School. Today was the day when all the children moved one class up. So did Kristin! We've actually moved Bryan up time back already, even before he turned 4.

She did really well. No tears, said bye-bye to Mommy. All independent - I peeped through the keyhole for about a minute.

When I returned after the sermon to collect her at the classroom, she was all engrossed in her artwork.

Wanna have a look at it?

On the first page, she was supposed to stick the bread basket on the ground. But she thought the girl would be better off holding onto it.

On the next page, I think it's some independent artwork. I thought the teachers helped. But when I saw what the rest of the class did (some boys just had little pieces of coloured paper stuck sporadically all over the page), Kristin was pretty impressive with her creativity!

When Daddy asked her if it meant to be a flower, she said, "No. A sun! The sun!" It might as well have been one bright shining sun for her. And indeed, what a brilliant one for the day!

happy birthday, Bryan!

Yay! You turn 4 today.

Of course, you're a big boy now.

You can dress yourself, put on your own shoes, feed yourself, although you still prefer Mommy or Daddy to do these things for you.

And from last doctor's assessment, we all know that your motor skills are pretty well-developed. Hopping, jumping, skipping, walking backward or sideways certainly doesn't prove to be of any problem to you, and you sure are confident at scaling heights at the next playground.

You never fail to impress me with your language skills and your talent in singing songs with words you make up out of the blue. And of course, all the silly sounds that you make as you attempt to learn phonics each day really send me off laughing.

Though you can't really read yet (other than the two words "zoo" and "buzz" you know), you've been reading to me Chicken in the City every night out of sheer memory skill.

Now that you're a big boy, be sure to leave all those crying fits behind you. Believe me, the past weeks have been nothing but a torture to me. The construction site in our backyard is not helping in keeping it down, and you whine and cry just about the moment you open your eyes and every 3-4 hours in the night. Those 5 hours that you spent in the summer camp for the last two weeks were peace for me and what's still keeping me sane.

So no more crying in the new year, please. Let's do more grown-up stuffs together. What do you say, wii play? Ok? :)

summer vacation...

I haven't exactly unpacked. Main reason: We're going to drive off for our summer vacation anyway, so why bother?

Temporarily, this is what we have planned:

Aug 6 : Frankfurt - Lucerne, 4.5 hours' drive, stop for the night

Aug 7: Lucerne - Lake Como, 2 hours' drive, stop for two nights

Aug 9: Lake Como - Florence, 3.5 hours' drive, stop for four nights

Aug 13: Florence - Pisa - Milan, stop for two nights

Aug 15: Milan - somewhere 3 hours' drive away, stop for the night and then head back to Frankfurt on the next day.